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In early November, we headed to Chicago for the 2022 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. Across the weekend we hosted three events for our community in partnership with our Corporate Member organizations: Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb and Janssen. The weekend also saw many awards distributed, and we were delighted to see so many talented women recipients – congratulations to you all! Here are our highlights from AHA 2022.

Supporting Women Into Clinical Trials with Novartis

We worked with Novartis to support Talent Directory registrants with an interest in clinical trials. With 40 physicians in attendance, we discussed how to get involved in clinical trials, institutional preparation for trials and the importance of patient engagement. Presentations from Novartis’ Neeraja Balachander, MBBS, PhD, MS, Vicki Albrecht PhD and Roxzana Kelly provided valuable insights on the topic for those in attendance. The opportunity to network at the end of the session also provided valuable time for physicians to interact and build relationships with industry colleagues.

Breakfast with BMS

Early/mid career physicians and residents from the Talent Directory were invited to this exclusive session with BMS to gain insights to advance their careers. The session included an all-star panel who shared their clinical and academic journeys and answered audience questions.

Some of the insights shared with the room were;

• Tracy Wang, MD, MHS (Duke University) shared how she overcame her fear of public speaking to help her get to where she wanted to be in her career.
• Anjali Owens, MD (University of Pennsylvania) talked about how important a strong mentor, specifically a female mentor, can be. She encouraged physicians to look outside of their own institutions when searching for a mentor.
• Nivee Amin, MD, MHS (BMS) shared how rewarding moving from patient work to industry work had been for her. It also expanded her network to a whole new group of people that she could learn from.

“Such an honor being part of the panel and meeting you all. Wonderful initiative, thank you to the organizers and the inspiring speakers! I have connected with many international women cardiologists on the day and later at the conference. Word is spreading, globally!”

Marzia Rigolli, MD, PhD (BMS)

Thank you to all of the panelists and speakers. From left: Nivee Amin, MD, MHS; Robert Harrington MD; Marzia Rigolli MD, PhD; Anjali Owens MD; Amy Sehnert MD; Tracy Wang MD, MHS; John Whang, MD and; Roxana Mehran MD (not pictured).

Women as One Networking Reception with Janssen

Sunday evening saw us collaborate with Janssen to bring women physicians together at a special networking reception. The session saw connections made between Janssen leadership and women physicians across multiple career stages for possible future collaborations. Janssen President of Cardiovascular and Metabolism, Katie Devine, MBA spoke about the importance of supporting women and her commitment to gender equality. Her remarks were echoed by Roxana Mehran MD.

Katie Devine, MBA, speaking to the attendees

Women Winning the Weekend

Increasing the visibility of women physicians is crucial to continue progress towards gender equality in medicine. Women physicians from all career stages were presenting on faculty across the Sessions. We’ve created a collection of some of the women who featured at the event which you can see here!

Not only were many women presenting, but many women were the recipients of distinguished awards. See the full list of award winners at AHA 2022 here.

• Our co-founder, Roxana Mehran, MD was awarded the CLCD Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award.
• 2020 Escalator Award winner Harriette Van Spall, MD, MPH was awarded the annual Dr. Nanette K. Wenger Research Goes Red® Award.
• Women as One Research Committee Chair, Pamela Douglas, MD received the James B. Herrick Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cardiology.

Photo credit: Laxmi Mehta (Twitter)

Photo credit: Ritu Thamman MD (Twitter)

Photo credit: Roxana Mehran MD